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Pathfinder Design and the Soulknife ( 978 reads) |
Sunday, October 25, 2009 (00:14:35) |
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It never fails - some little thing will come along in a design process and just open a can of worms that someone will always have issue with.
Case in point, the soulknife for Pathfinder.
3.5 Soulknife - d10 HD, Average BAB.
Pathfinder HD/BAB alignment - d10 = full, d8 = average
Pathfinder Class Conversion Precedent #1 - Only give new stuff, don't take stuff away (Barbarian's d12, Wizard/Sorceror's d6, Ranger's d10, Dragon Disciple's d12)
Pathfinder Class Conversion Precedent #2 - Don't change BAB - Dragon Disciple's Average BAB
So when the discussion of the soulknife and Pathfinder came up with regards to its BAB and Hit Dice, my initial reaction was to drop the Hit Die to d8 to conform. But Andreas or Phil (I honestly forget which) then pointed out that in 100% of the cases of 3.5 classes converted to Pathfinder, not a single Hit Die was dropped in rank.
So, my second response was to increase the BAB to conform. At which point it was pointed out that across the board among all classes, BAB was never changed - ever - even in the case of the Dragon Disciple, whose d12 HD severely mismatched its Average BAB.
So, where does that leave us?
Between a rock and a hard place, that's where.
The clear precedent in the Pathfinder RPG is to leave it intact. We can't increase BAB, because no class had its BAB changed (positively or negatively). We can't decrease its HD, because no class had its HD lowered, only increased. We can't increase its HD, because the BAB doesn't call for it and only existing classes should get d12.
The precedent is set by the Dragon Disciple, who kept his d12 HD and his Average BAB, breaking the HD/BAB rule, but implementing an overarcing corollary to the rules above - if a change to bring something in line with the Pathfinder Design Paradigm would mean taking something away, don't do it.
This is the logic that left the Soulknife at d10 / Average BAB.
It was not a quick decision, nor something to do because we didn't like Pathfinder's rules. It was done using the Pathfinder classes as our guidelines and using the precedents set in the main rulebook.
If the soulknife was a brand new class, you can bet your ass we'd follow the HD / BAB rule. But it's not - it's an update from 3.5, and therefore, we followed Pathfinder's lead. |
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